Students' Engagement and the ISP as a Micro-World and a Window on the educational world

This chapter reflects upon the variety of activities involved during the Erasmus+ Intensive Study Programme (ISP) “MARPE Diplo: Fostering European Citizenship through Public, Corporate and Civic Diplomacy.” The authors contextualise and explain why the MARPE Diplo team decided to design a programme drawing on participatory and co-creative pedagogical approaches. They analyse step-by-step how the programme was conceived, always looking for the ideal balance between overall project aims, specific content objectives, appropriate didactics and evaluation. The authors reflect on how innovative pedagogical approaches support overcoming cultural barriers and facilitate genuine exchange and how the ISP participants evaluated the effects of these approaches on their personal learning path, during the ISP, at the end of the ISP and 18 months later. The chapter closes with recommendations for future intensive study programmes.